Investors who are keen on The Wall Street Journal may take another look at Apple stock after reading today's paper. The venerable pillar of all things financial is out with a favorable splash feature about Apple's "outsized reputation" in Asia.

Apple has earned the distinction of Asia’s most admired multinational company, according to the Asia 200 survey conducted by the Wall Street Journal.

Apple held just a 1.6% share of the personal-computer market in Asia in the second quarter of this year, and a 0.6% sliver of the region's mobile-phone market, according to technology market-research firm IDC. Yet Apple skyrocketed to the top of our annual Asia 200 survey this year, and was ranked by readers as the region's most admired multinational company. Last year, Apple ranked seventh.

The far reaching consensus is that, while their market share is minimal, their presence is large. And although Apple only ships less than 20% of its product line to Asia at present, the rapid growth in that part of the world will eventually come full circle to improve our experience with Apple both in North America and Europe.

Gamers, for example, take their play time very seriously in Asia - perhaps to an even greater and more competitive extent than some US teenagers. Asia's growing love for the gaming apps - and their growing appetite for Apple products in general - could, for example, help force the company to finally roll out adequate gaming hardware or button functionality for the iPod and iPhone.

Apple clearly wants to dominate the Asian market. And with Asian consumers placing demand on quality technology and streamlined, steady upgrades, the concern that some Apple fans have (that the company is growing lazy, as illustrated by the lack of a real wow-factor at Wednesday's media event) may finally fade from sight.

The release of the iPhone, Apple's latest must-have gadget, in Asia has helped buoy the company's profile in the region. More than 2,000 people in Singapore queued up for hours when domestic carrier Singapore Telecommunications launched the iPhone on July 10. The customer at the front of the line reportedly waited for 11 hours.

Asia is banking on Apple, and Apple is banking on Asia.

How could that relationship ultimately prove anything less than favorable for Apple customers here at home?

Hm, yet again people fail to see the significance of the Apple productline. Why should Apple add 'button functionality' to the iPhone and Touch? Why would they change what has already been proven a succes?

It is the story of Apple, I'm afraid. People looked a bit funny when the Mac came shipped with a mouse... a few years later the mouse was common good even in the PC world. Soon after the Mac OS made its debut with those nice little icons and trash cans the PC manufacturers followed suit. When they left out a floppy disk drive in the original 'flavour colored' iMacs people went on a rampage... yet name one personal computer for the last 5 maybe 10 years that didn't ditch the floppy drive.
So in 2007 Apple finally answered hardcore fans' desire: they released the iPhone. They took the ease of use of the iPod one step further (or rather, one giant leap) and introduced the full touch screen. Not those lame efforts where you still have to push a dent in the plexiglas screen, no sir. Actual full touch screen that requires just a little tap of the finger. With the iPhone Apple did not venture into unknown territory but created its own and guess what... mobile phonemakers are scrambling to release their own version of 'full touch'. Thanks to Apple millions of consumers now use (or otherwise want to use) a smartphone that was up till 2007 reserved for businesses.
Now the iPod Touch turns out to be a hit among gamers. Why is that? Perhaps because of the ease of use when touching controls? Perhaps tilting and panning the Touch to make use of its accelerometer? Surely not because of the lack of buttons. For that they can run to PSP and Nintendo.

So again, why would Apple put buttons on the Touch? It's kinda like putting the floppy drive back in our PC's (Macs), a step back. And Apple isn't known for stepping backwards. Rather I foresee a future PSP without buttons... and with full touch screen controls.

Normally that iPhone would look ugly. Guess it's just that it's different which is what intrigues me.

I just want one more button added to the phone. Please Apple. Just put one button under the volume controls that can be used as a camera shutter and for developers to use in apps however they want. It would make quick send on a jailbroken phone so much more awesome!

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That iphone clone is called the i68 and its a dual sim running ANY carrier with no problem and has a micro SD card slot that plays mpeg 4 files that you could manually install onto the sd card. It usually comes with the simpsons movie. No dependence on itunes or all these firmware updates. They have refined the design more like our genuine iphones that's an earlier model. Yes I had to crawl before I could walk iphone.

Hm, yet again people fail to see the significance of the Apple productline. Why should Apple add 'button functionality' to the iPhone and Touch? Why would they change what has already been proven a succes?

It is the story of Apple, I'm afraid. People looked a bit funny when the Mac came shipped with a mouse... a few years later the mouse was common good even in the PC world. Soon after the Mac OS made its debut with those nice little icons and trash cans the PC manufacturers followed suit. When they left out a floppy disk drive in the original 'flavour colored' iMacs people went on a rampage... yet name one personal computer for the last 5 maybe 10 years that didn't ditch the floppy drive.
So in 2007 Apple finally answered hardcore fans' desire: they released the iPhone. They took the ease of use of the iPod one step further (or rather, one giant leap) and introduced the full touch screen. Not those lame efforts where you still have to push a dent in the plexiglas screen, no sir. Actual full touch screen that requires just a little tap of the finger. With the iPhone Apple did not venture into unknown territory but created its own and guess what... mobile phonemakers are scrambling to release their own version of 'full touch'. Thanks to Apple millions of consumers now use (or otherwise want to use) a smartphone that was up till 2007 reserved for businesses.
Now the iPod Touch turns out to be a hit among gamers. Why is that? Perhaps because of the ease of use when touching controls? Perhaps tilting and panning the Touch to make use of its accelerometer? Surely not because of the lack of buttons. For that they can run to PSP and Nintendo.

So again, why would Apple put buttons on the Touch? It's kinda like putting the floppy drive back in our PC's (Macs), a step back. And Apple isn't known for stepping backwards. Rather I foresee a future PSP without buttons... and with full touch screen controls.

Actually they could have something like an add on that would add button functionality. It doesn't seem that you have tried playing too many games on the iPhone. I would love to be able to use my whole screen for viewing and not take up a third of it with my fingers, and I'm not a big guy, meaning I can't imagine trying to use fat fingers on the screen while trying to play video games. No offense to the bigger people, I'm just saying, full screen gaming would be a plus. maybe add gaming buttons above and below the home button and near the speaker at the top. I understand this would be difficult, I'm just saying, buttons on the screen isn't fun. IMO.

While Apple has the best multitouch display and interface IMO, it still doesn't hold a candle to the tech in my girlfriend's JPhone. She has a Sharp 933SH.

I'm really not sure why the Japanese buy iPhones when you can get something like the 933SH which has 10MPixel Camera, HDTV, DVR Capability, GPS/Nav, 16GB internal, MicroSD Card Slot for even more storage, some awesome game downloads, and many other features all for a lower price.

While Apple has the best multitouch display and interface IMO, it still doesn't hold a candle to the tech in my girlfriend's JPhone. She has a Sharp 933SH.

I'm really not sure why the Japanese buy iPhones when you can get something like the 933SH which has 10MPixel Camera, HDTV, DVR Capability, GPS/Nav, 16GB internal, MicroSD Card Slot for even more storage, some awesome game downloads, and many other features all for a lower price.

That phone is ugly as sh*t, though.

Does this rag smell like chloroform to you?

If I helped you, be sure to press the Thanks! button over there ->
If I didn't, press it anyway.